Breaching Plato's Cave
by Auua Ytjoml
Summary: A man who has lived his entire live in a cave, watching the shadows cast by a fire he cannot see, is one day led past the fire and into the sunlit world outside before returning to the community of shadow-watchers. A collection of one-shots. A/U.
1. Nocambulism

2. Nocambulism

So lately I've been having these really weird dreams.

At first I'll be doing something normal – eating cafeteria food with my friends, goofing off in class, hanging out at Nasty Burgers –basically a continuation of whatever I was doing before I fell asleep, when all of the sudden I'll get these chills and then the scene shifts.

I'm outside, floating midair and I'm all in black and white – like an old movie stuck in the 21st century. I face off against these green ghostly-thingimajiggers – every dream it looks different – young, old, big, small, girl or guy. We fight and after varying degrees of pain I beat them just before I wake up, aching all over.

Often times I wake up elsewhere from where I fell asleep, which might explain the scrapes and bruises. Sleep-walking cannot be good for the shins. But I'm also tired all the time. I'm not getting my school work done on time. I'm late for curfew when I fall asleep on the way home. You haven't known fear until you wake up in an alley in the middle of the night and realize that not only have you slept walk into gang territory but that stealth seems to be a feature you exhibit only during stage 4 of the sleep cycle.

The doctors we've talked to diagnose me with Narcolepsy aka, 'excessive daytime sleepiness' and argue about whether I more likely suffer from Somnambulism aka 'sleepwalking' or Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder aka 'acting out dreams'. The latter explains the connection to my dreams but only in the former do people actually leave bed to do stuff.

What they can't explain is how I get as far as I do. They've suggested first making sure dangerous things like knives or backpacks in the middle of the walkway are put away. We're also supposed to lock doors and put up a gate at the top of the stairs to hinder my progress. It doesn't help.

About a month after this started, we actually flipped the lock on my door so that I could be locked in from the outside and I still managed to wake up in the kitchen the next morning.

The scary thing is my injuries are getting bigger. Two weeks ago I woke up in my bed, but with a huge gash across my ribs. I overheard a doctor suggest to my parents that I might be faking it to get away with nightly escapades, possible gang activity. Luckily my parents heard and listened to the terror and confusion in my voice when I woke them with loud screams for help.

It's been almost six months. Dad sleeps in my room and windows and doors are locked behind us and double-checked. My dreams are more frightening than ever before. Sometimes they end in me losing now. Those are the times I wake up with the worst injuries.

I've also begun to notice that my dreams are cohesive. I rarely remember much from any one dream but it's been long enough that a picture is forming. The ghosts even reference past dreams and I'm beginning to think that these dreams are more real than not. What else explains everything so clearly?

The doctors think my theory is ridiculous. They say that my dream injuries are merely reflections of the pain I feel unconsciously. But I'm not so sure.

Tonight I'm on my sixth cup of espresso. Mom and Dad have tried to get me to relax but even as clueless as I am I can tell their hearts aren't in it. Last night a ghost informed me that they are all planning a mass attack on me tonight. Said he didn't care about me just wanted to give me a chance to say my last goodbyes.

I know it was just a dream. I know it's not real. I know.

But the truth is the dream is the most real thing to me nowadays … and I am terrified to fall asleep.

I'm terrified that I might never wake up again.


	2. Splitting Mind

A/N - The teaser/info is a summery of Plato's allegory of a cave. Wiki it if you would like more information. Basically every oneshot here is going to be AU to varying degrees all exploring the concepts of dreams and/or realities.

Also, the title for each chapter is an allusion to something within the chapter. E-cookies to everyone who gets the references! I hope you enjoy. I don't own DP and I love reviews. ;-)

1. Splitting Mind

After the accident something weird happened; and I mean extremely weird. I acquired ghost powers. Suddenly a whole new world was open to me.

The most surprising thing was that my parents – upstanding scientists both – are actually ghost hunters on the side. Naturally with my new state of being, I've had to be a bit wary of them but, first and foremost, they're my parents. I knew I could trust them.

Or so I thought, but you see it's not like they tried to kill me or turn me over to the government for experimentation or anything. Sure the shock treatments are horribly painful, but they're not lethal. They're meant to help.

And so every night as the rest of the world slips off into dreamland, I take to the skies to patrol and protect Amity Park. Sometimes I do fight my parents. I try not to but they call me evil and get in the way of stopping the real bad guys. Luckily my best friends, Sam and Tucker, are always by my side during my nightly vigilante efforts.

Occasionally they visit me during the day as well, but whenever I try to talk about ghosts they beg me to stop, and I realize that they don't want anyone to overhear us and learn my – our – secret, but still. It would be nice to talk.

I certainly can't talk to my roommate. He's loony. He's always talking to himself and is crazy paranoid.

But then, people call me crazy too. The doctor says I have Skits-O-Friend-E-A: that I see things that aren't there. I've told him that the reason I'm the only one who can see most of the ghosts is because of my ghost sense, but I get the feeling he doesn't quite believe me, and even if he _can_ be a bit dense, he's the one adult I do trust not to tell anyone my secret namely because he doesn't believe me. I mean, he's told me he understands that I have these powers, but then he wont let me go when I inform him there's a ghost I need to take care of.

Sometimes I miss the sun. I mean… sure I have all freedom in the world at night, but… it's been a long, long time since I saw the outside of these four white walls.


End file.
